In the past minerals separation flotation cells have been used in many applications for the separation of values or concentrate from gangue by mixing the mineral in a slurry or pulp, causing the values or concentrate to be floated to the surface of the pulp in a flotation cell, typically by a bubble inducing operation, recovering the values via an overflow weir, and draining the gangue or unwanted material from the lower part of the cell. Where a high flow rate of product is required it is common to operate a plurality of such minerals separation flotation cells side by side in parallel with one another to achieve the desired output flow rate. In this situation it is necessary to provide each individual cell with a level controller which senses the level of liquid in the cell and controls the flow rate through that particular cell to maintain the desired level range within the cell. This arrangement is expensive in that each cell must be provided with an individual level controller.
There are also situations where it is desired to further refine the gangue or tails which issue from each cell in which case the output from a cell may be redirected back to the input to recycle and reprocess the gangue to retrieve further values or concentrate. Alternatively the gangue from one cell may be directed to another cell for further refinement. These processes disrupt the normal operating cycle of the separation cell resulting in operational inefficiency.